7 Content Marketing Secrets to Increase Organic Traffic

Even if your content is performing well, there’s always room for improvement. But contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t require a new blog post every other day. As a matter of fact, you can drastically boost your website’s SEO traffic growth with just a single blog post.

This probably sounds too good to be true. That’s why today we’re going to share with you the exact steps and secrets we used to increase traffic growth for a site by a staggering 1089%.

Ready to get started? Read on!

Build Epic Cornerstone Content

It’s true: links are what make the world (wide web) go ‘round. But you can’t build long lasting links without quality content to link to.

This is the content that everyone refers to when they’re looking for information: “Oh, search engine marketing? You should check out this post from site X. It’ll tell you everything you need to know!”

It’s content like this that forms the foundation of effective content marketing: a crucial component in modern day integrated marketing campaigns that cohesively drive marketing results. It’s so vital, in fact, that some 22% of those surveyed at Smart Insights said that content marketing would be the digital marketing activity with the greatest commercial impact in 2016.

While creating this content may sound daunting, the following steps will ensure you’re creating viral, epic content in no time.

1. Kickstart With Relevant Keywords

It’s a fact: the effective use of keywords forms the basis of any high-ranking site. The same philosophy applies when you’re creating epic content, too. In fact, ensuring your content is built around keywords that are highly relevant to your business is the most important step of all.

Epic content doesn’t just increase your business’s standing as a go-to expert within your industry. It also provides one of the most effective link building opportunities available. That’s because content that provides worthwhile, meaningful, lengthy information on a subject is far more likely to be read and shared.

So when it comes time to build these links, you want to ensure you’re boosting your relevancy—and rankings—for the lucrative keywords that your site is hoping to rank for.

2. Scope Out the Competition

Epic content is epic for a reason: it’s the best of the best of the best! But you won’t be able to create the go-to resource for your topic if you aren’t able to answer the following questions:

What resources already exist?

What do they cover?

And most importantly, can you create something better?

The easiest way to answer these questions is to scope out the competition. By researching existing content, you won’t just have a bar to measure your own content against, but you’ll also uncover exactly what your epic content needs to include to beat the competition and become the go-to resource.

Tip: While competitors’ content is a useful research tool, it’s crucial that you ensure your epic content is entirely unique. To avoid any issues, run your content through SEO crawlers such as OnCrawl, which alerts you to any duplicate or near-duplicate content issues.

4. Create a Killer Visual Asset

A killer visual asset is far more than just window dressing. It actually provides even more opportunities to build links to your site.

Lengthy content is great. There’s no doubt about it. But a wall of text? Ain’t nobody got time for that!

By introducing visual elements, you’ll enhance the shareability and memorability of your content—great qualities on their own—as well as open your content up to a larger userbase, especially when you consider 65% of people are visual learners!

But make no mistake: any old visual element won’t do. Instead, we’re looking for something much better than that: a killer visual asset.

Visual assets aren’t regular images you might pull from a Google Image search. Instead, these are unique diagrams or infographics you’ve created specifically for your epic content. These kinds of diagrams or infographics explain a theory, communicate a point, or showcase data in exciting and interesting ways—and gain attention (and links) because of it.

3 Quick Ways to Create a Killer Visual Asset

Do you lack design experience? Then use services like Design Crowd or Crowdspring to recruit talented artists to create a stunning diagram or infographic for you.

Build Lucrative Links by Promoting Your Epic Content

With your content created, you’re all set to put a few staple content marketing techniques into action—techniques that can build those lucrative, long-lasting backlinks any site would love to have.

5. How to Utilize Broken Link Building

Social networks, new bands, and fashion trends all have something in common: they all come and go. And as they do, links to those sites become broken.

If you consider the hundreds if not thousands of links on any given site, it’s easy to see how these broken links go unnoticed. Sites like these that could use a helping hand—from you!

Being a good internet Samaritan is great and all, but how does this help you build links? Let me explain: the kind of broken links you’re looking for are found on sites relevant to your business, industry, or niche. By finding these sites and informing them of these broken links, you strike up a conversation with the site owner and give yourself the opportunity to suggest a link to your epic piece of content be added to their site.

But why would a site add a link because you asked them to? Because by opening communication not with a pitch, but an offer to help, the suggestion that they include your link becomes less a soulless pitch and more a reciprocal gesture of goodwill.

If you scratch my broken link back, I’ll scratch yours. Here’s how.

Seek Out Relevant Sites

Open Google, and enter any of the following search strings into the search bar:

[KEYWORD] + intitle:links

[KEYWORD] + inurl:links

Looking to save time? Try this epic search string combo:

[KEYWORD] OR [KEYWORD] + intitle:links OR inurl:links

Tip: Mix and match your keywords. While a search for “accounting” may work fine, terms like “business” will also offer a wealth of suitable prospects.

From these results, compile a list of relevant sites that feature a page of links.

Be aware that any older sites you find during Broken Link Building will be an affront to the eyes, but this doesn’t mean they’re bad. In fact, you’ll be surprised how many of these are still regularly updated. Better still? Older, established sites can provide higher link value.

Become a Broken Link Sleuth

With a list of sites in hand, it’s time to don the detective’s hat and go looking for those broken links.

Open one of the Links pages that you compiled during your search. Use a tool like Check My Links or Broken Link Checker to scan the page for broken links. Make a note of any links that are broken.

Check the site for a contact name and email address.

Lend a Helping Hand

It’s come time to contact these site owners and inform them of the bad news: their site includes broken links. Then, follow it up with the good news: you know which ones!

But your initial outreach shouldn’t include the list of broken links. By sending a site a list of their broken links, you close down any need for further communication. Sure, you might get a quick thank-you, but what you really want is the chance to mention your content.

Instead, tour email should aim to strike up a conversation:

Broken Link Building: Initial Contact Email Template

Hi [NAME],

I was looking for some info on [KEYWORD], and found a few broken links on your site which I wanted to tell you about.

I found them on this page: [PAGE URL]

Do you still keep this page updated? If so, let me know and I’d be happy to forward the short list of broken links over to you.

Thank you.

Regards, [YOUR NAME]

This email does two very important things:

It informs the site owner that there their site contains broken links, which is a helpful act on your part.

It doesn’t mention which links are broken, which in turn invites the site owner to reply!

Suggest Your Content

Once you receive a response, it’s time to hand over the list of links and suggest your content. But remember: this isn’t a time to pitch! Instead, your response should aim to point out your content, and suggest that it might make a good addition to their page if they want to add it. By employing this method, the site owner will be far more likely to include your link as a thanks for pointing out their broken links.

Broken Link Building: Follow-Up Email Template

Hey again [NAME],

No worries! Here’s the list of broken links that I found while browsing the page:

[LIST OF LINKS]

I was searching for information on [KEYWORD] when I stumbled on them. I hope this helps!

On that note, I recently published a resource on [KEYWORD] (including a helpful [DIAGRAM OR INFOGRAPHIC]) here:

[LINK TO YOUR CONTENT]

Perhaps it might make for a nice addition to your page?

Just a thought! In any case, keep up the great work with your website and resources.

Regards, [YOUR NAME]

6. Guest Posting

Guest posting is one of the most effective ways to build your brand, promote your expertise, and drive targeted traffic to your site—not to mention its ability to build quality, long-lasting backlinks to your epic content.

Here’s a mini-guide to guest posting, broken down into three simple steps.

Find Your Targets

Use the following search terms to find websites that have hosted Guest Posts before.

[KEYWORD] + “guest post”

[KEYWORD] + “write for us”

[KEYWORD] + “guest article”

[KEYWORD] + “contributing writer”

The idea here is if they’ve accepted them in the past, then there’s a good chance they’ll be interested in your ideas.

Pitch Your Ideas

Found the perfect blog? Pitch them your idea! When pitching, ensure you suggest ideas that provide them with something useful—that is, unique content ideas that fit the site’s target audience.

Write Your Post

Once you’ve gotten the green light, put digital pen to virtual paper and write your guest post. Make sure you include links to relevant internal and external content, as well as an all-important author bio.

7. Visual Link Building

Now’s your chance to wield your visual asset like a link-building weapon. By reaching out to relevant sites, you can draw attention to your new visual asset and establish long-lasting backlinks in the process—backlinks that you wouldn’t have been able to land any other way.

Find Your Visual Outreach Prospects

Visual link building begins just like any other kind of link building: by finding sites that write on topics relevant to your visual asset.

To do this, open Google and enter keywords that relate to your visual asset.

Make First Contact

Found a relevant site? It’s time to make contact! But rather than run in shouting the virtues of your visual asset, look to open a channel of communication by focusing on their site, their content, and a small mention of your visual asset.

Visual Link Building: Initial Email Template

Hi [NAME],

I was recently searching for some info on [KEYWORD], and found [SITE NAME].

On that note, I recently put together a [DIAGRAM OR INFOGRAPHIC] on [KEYWORD]. Given you write a lot about [KEYWORD], I thought you might be interested.

Let me know if you’d like to check it out! 😀

Thank you.

Regards, [YOUR NAME]

Not only does this email strike up a conversation, but it also brings attention to your visual asset without sounding like a salesperson.

Incentivize the Linking Process

Your visual asset might be great in its own right, but by adding further incentives for a prospective site owner, you’ll increase your chances of landing a link.

How do you do this? By promising even more content to accompany your visual asset. This could include:

A mini-guest post that features your visual asset.

A short write-up to accompany your infographic.

A write-up of the information or steps displayed in your diagram.

When you receive a response, reply with something like:

Visual Link Building: Follow-Up Email Template

Thanks [NAME]! You can find the [DIAGRAM OR INFOGRAPHIC] on our site here: [LINK].

If you were thinking of adding it to your site, I’d love to write up a unique [CONTENT TYPE] to accompany the [DIAGRAM OR INFOGRAPHIC] that would be tailored to suit your site and its audience.

Let me know!

Thank You.

Regards, [YOUR NAME]

By doing so, you’ll increase the chances of successfully landing a contextual link, which provides a far greater benefit for your site than regular embedded links that accompany most visual content.

Now You Know the Secrets, So Get Creating!

So there you have it: our secrets, tips, and tricks for boosting SEO traffic growth and driving a wealth of new visitors to your site. With these skills now a part of your marketing repertoire, there’s nothing stopping you from emulating our outstanding results, if not surpassing them.

Whether it’s a lengthy piece of epic content, a killer visual asset, or a bit of both, by ensuring that whatever you create is the best-of-the-best, you’ll provide your site with the best chance of achieving maximum results and landing quality, lucrative backlinks that will stand the test of time.

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Robert Kramers, owner of Found SEO, is a passionate New Zealand-based search engine and content marketer. Like what you read? Subscribe to his newsletter by downloading his SEO e-book.

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